This article introduces a topic that I have taken an interest in, namely the National Information Exchange Model (NIEM) and the Information Exchange Package Documentation (IEPD). NIEM itself is interesting because it attempts to define an extensible standard for information exchange between various government agencies. An IEPD is the specific definition of this exchange for an information domain. Everything in the world of NIEM is based on XML and XSDs, and the specific schemas defined in an IEPD can be quite complex.
